General History
War and Peace, Creative Change, Economic and Social Roller Coasters, Tragedy and Love, - The Times of Theodore Roethke
1910's - World War I - Russian Civil War - Titanic Sinks - U.S. population 92,407,000 - Influenza kills 500,000 in U.S. - Model T introduced - U.S. declares war on Germany, Austria Hungary - First birth control clinic opened - 76 lynchings - Average salary $750 / year - Nation debt $1.5 billion
1920's - Stalin gains power - Hitler publishes Vol 1 Mein Kampf - U.S. population 106,521,537 - Life expenctancy 54 years - T.V. invented - Insulin and penicillin invented - Presidients: Coolidge, Hoover - Lindbergh flies Spirit of St. Louis - Ruth hits 60 homeruns - 343,000 in military - Literacy rate reaches new low 6% - Gangland crime - Prohibition - Tariffs raised on imported goods - Roaring Twenties - Stock Market Collapses - First Phase of Depression - Teacher's salary $970 / year
1930's - Nazi terror begins - War with China and Japan - U.S. population 123,188,000 - Money is scare - Movies were hot - First canned beer made - FM radio and jet engine invented - Economics dominate decade - Veterans march on Washington, Huey Long annual income proposal - Al Capone goes to prison - Fireside chats with President Roosevelt - American dream a nightmare - Minimum wage established - Unemployment 25% - Average salary $1,368 - Social Security Act - CIO formed - Milk 14 cents qt. Bread 9 cnets loaf
1940's - Japan attacks Pearl Harbor - World War II fought and won - United Nations established - U.S. and USSR become super powers - Cold War emerges - Atomic bombs dropped - Population 132,122,000 - Life expectancy 65 - Inventions: Color TV , Synthetic rubber, Electronic Digital Computer, Wulitzer jukebox - Lend Lease Act - Supreme Court Decision / Black rights to vote - FDR dies, Truman takes over as president - Scrap drives - Auto production ceased - Food rationing - Victgory gardens - Woody Guthrie, "This Land is Your Land" - 55% of US hames have indoor plumbing - Returning GI's create baby boom - Frozen prices, salaries, and wages to curb inflation - Income Tax Witholding introduced - National debt $443 billion - Average salary $1,299 / year
1950's - Stalin dies - War in Korea - French Vietnamese conflict - Cold War and arms race escalates - Alaska and Hawaii become states - Inventions: the credit card, diet soft drinks, black-box flight recorder - oral contracentives, tetracycline, the laser, micro chip, DNA molecule - Developement of the hydrogen bomb - Eisenhower Doctrine - Immigration and Naturalization Act removes racial and ethnic barriers to becoming US citizen - polio vaccine developed - 17 million TV's in American homes - Baby boom underway - Alleged Communists in the Army - Racial Segregation in public schools declared unconstitutional - Martin Luther King movement - Jet-airliner domestic service begins - American industry expanding - Economic growth everywhere - AFL CIO formed - Federal Highway Act signed beginning work on interstate highway systems.
1960's - Cold War continues - Cuban missile crisis / Bay of Pigs - Advisors in Vietnam, war begins - Population 177,840,000 - Health and environment becomes a concern - Inventions: Valium, FM radio, silicone breast implants, non dairy creamer - Civil Rights Movement - Prayer in school declared unconstitutional - JFK and MLK assassinated - LBJ takes over as president - 850,000 "war baby" freshmen enter college - Auto deaths 21.3 per 1000 - College debate and protest - Draft Card burning - Term "blacks" become recognized - Number of minority Hispanics triple - Unemployment 3,852,000 - National debt 286.3 billion - Average salary $4,743 - Minimum wage $1.00
Theodore Roethke 1908-1963
